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Portrush Rocket Life Saving Company
Portrush Rocket Life Saving Company, who were volunteers under Coastguard management, used this Wreck Post on Ramore Head for their quarterly practice exercises (one of which was always carried out in darkness). With the post representing a ship’s mast, a Boxer Rocket (named after the military engineer Captain Boxer) could carry a line up to 200 yards from ‘shore’ to the team at the ‘mast’.

Lifesaving by Coastguardsmen
The Lifeboats owned and managed by the Royal National Life-boat Institution are stationed at almost every point of our extensive seaboard where loss of life through shipwreck is most to be feared; while the services performed by their crews every year, unostentatiously, and in the ordinary course of duty, are such as would do honour to any age or nation.

Five Coastguardsmen DrownedIt is with much regret I have to announce a most deplorable catastrophe which took place on Monday night in Dundalk Bay. Five fine fellows, all married, and some having six children each, left their station at Dunany with a load of firearms for Soldier's Point on Monday.

The Man they could not hangTHE COASTGUARDS AND THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG
John 'Babbacombe' Lee was twice in the employment of Emma Keyse. He was also in the navy, convicted of theft and accused of killing Miss Keyse.He served a life sentence of penal servitude from 1885 - 1907 when he was released. Lee sold his side of the story to 'Lloyds Weekly News' and became a 'personality' through the music halls and silent cinema. John Lee eventually became an 'admired' and quite rich personality. In reality he secretly fled (illegally) to America in 1911 with a bar maid who claimed, incorrectly (and also illegally), to be his wife. John Lee had deserted his real wife, Jessie, he so publicly married at Newton Abbot in 1909...

The Jago Coastguards in the 19th Century
James Jago, was a coastguard. When we started researching the history of our family, we discovered that James was one of at least seven brothers and uncles who had served in the Royal Navy and transferred to the Coastguard.

John NICHOLLS Coastguard (1815-1871)
The life and times of John Nicholls (Great Great Grandfather) (1815 until pensioned from Coastguards in 1871). Please can you add to your records database.

Obituary WR BUIKE 1901
The bearer party consisted of Chief Boatmen Goddard and Tee, Commissioned Boatmen Giles and B. Hudson, and Boatman Stone, and the pall bearers were Chief Officers Petty (Bembridge) and Tubbs (Sandown) and two Chief Officers of the Cowes division.

John Vincent Rohu
Notes on diary kept by John Vincent Rohu during his service in the Crimean War.
J.V.’s Service Record shows that he was Coastguard til 5th. March 1854. He joined Price Regent on 6th. March 1854, transferred to the Royal Albert on 23rd. November, was discharged from the Royal Albert on 20th. August 1856 and resumed Coastguard duties that same day.

Frederick Ashby, Coastguard
My great-grandfather Frederick Ashby (1851-1943), left a hand-written memoir covering 20 years of his service as a Coastguard. This included service in various North Devon Stations, 4 years at Rosslare (Co. Wexford) and a spell in Great Yarmouth (Norfolk). The memoir gives a fascinating taste of his duties, training and experiences in the Coastguard Service

Dreadful Accident at Derry
The Evening Herald. Tuesday 30 August 1892
Derry Monday.
The boating fatality on Lough Swilly
A verdict of accidental drowning was today returned at the inquest on the bodies of coastguardsmen Richard Tibbles and William John Stowers, natives of Plymouth and Kent respectively, who were....

The Coastguard goes to War. 1854
When the Crimean War broke out in 1854, the country was, as usual, totally unprepared for a struggle with the colossal might of Imperial Russia, and the value of the Coastguard as a naval reserve was clearly shown. Every man who was available was drafted to the fleet. During the war 3,000 men were drafted to the Fleet.